A judge from Udmurtia was stripped of his powers for photographing a mosque in a cloud of smoke on his social network page

The disciplinary panel of the Supreme Court of Russia rejected the complaint of judge Ivan Vershinin of the Malopurginsky District Court of Udmurtia, who was deprived of his powers for an extremist comment, reports . Pravo.ru

Thus, the Supreme Court confirmed the decision of the regional qualification board of judges (KJC). This decision was supported by 14 out of 17 members of the board.

The Udmurt Constitutional Court left Vershinin without judicial powers in May of this year, after it received a corresponding submission from the Chairman of the Supreme Court of Udmurtia, Yuri Sukhanov. The panel concluded that Vershinin violated the code of judicial ethics.

Vershinin was deprived of his powers due to the November 2013 publication on the social network VKontakte of a photograph of a mosque in which clouds of smoke were rising, with the caption “In the world you can endlessly look at three things: how water flows, how the stars twinkle and how the mosque burns,” and also with the comment: “And how the Jews burn.” Last summer, the Udmurt department of the FSB began an investigation into Vershinin. At the end of October 2014, the judge’s wife removed the photograph from her husband’s page, but on December 31, a case was opened under Part 1 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code (incitement of hatred and enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity). Since the case was opened based on the publication, and not against a judge, permission was not asked from the KKS.

Vershinin insisted that he had not seen the picture and published it “as a result of an accidental coincidence.” In addition, Vershinin indicated that he had many familiar friends among Jews and Muslims. In the Supreme Court, he also said that he deleted the publication himself.

Earlier, Irina Parfenova, judge of the Beloglinsky District Court of the Krasnodar Territory, was stripped of her robe after a photo was found in her Odnoklassniki account in which she is sitting in her office, with her feet on the table, with the caption: “I, of course, am not perfect, but it’s still a masterpiece!” The decision of the Qualification Board of Judges of the Krasnodar Territory was also confirmed by the Supreme Court.